Bathurst Highlights

[TVR-190]

What did you enjoy the most?

mine:

[Grennan]

Yeah the Ford Fireball was a good moment.

I enjoyed watching Murphey and Skaifey race, they had an awesome day. They had the fastest car on the track and were making up places all over the shop. If it wasnt for that last safety car we wouldve seen those two up on the podium. Why couldnt they have let that Ford sit in the sand for 2 laps

[HSV.006]

haha thats my girlfriends dads businesses car orrcon spewin but still.. ford

[Holdens Rule]

What did you enjoy the most?

mine:

mine as well but also the fact there was no fords other than the one ford don't want to acknowledge in the top ten!

[Hunter SS]

Yeah the Ford Fireball was a good moment.

I enjoyed watching Murphey and Skaifey race, they had an awesome day. They had the fastest car on the track and were making up places all over the shop. If it wasnt for that last safety car we wouldve seen those two up on the podium. Why couldnt they have let that Ford sit in the sand for 2 laps

put Murph in a good car, and you won't catch him! He was good to watch.

[STEALTHY™]

Mine was watching lowndes in the wet. ****in awesome show he puts on (sometimes not intentionally haha)

[Jesterarts]

Yeah lowndes crossing it up at the top of the mountain was a hairy moment... and then he also decided to cross it up at almost 300kmph coming out of Conrod Straight... good show.

I was a little shattered when he got the drive through... though it was a fair call.

Good to see the Holden Boys finally take command of the podium and murphy was NUTS in the last few laps.

The 2 last pace cars really made the end of the race aggressive as hell.

Awesome race overall.

[Fonzie]

The 3rd and 4th cars crossing the line... Their time difference? 42 THOUSANDTHS of a second. Someone would be slightly annoyed, no?

[immortality]

Damn, what a race. gutted about Murph. never seems to have any luck go his way and yet he's at the pointy end every year. Skaife definitly hasn't lost it, if anything he's back to his best. i think team ownership was the worst thing he ever did.

still got to wonder how 888 get the fuel mileage. a couple more laps per fill just doesn't add up

any moment where Murph is at his best is a good moment in my book.

[Kikki]

I'd have to say seeing them in the wet I got a little excited lol! Holden did well but yeah seeing the Ford on fire made for a good start to the day

[andyman]

i like the bit where they showed the under car cam when it went into the pits, if you noticed, the same time the uni joint stopped turning, the wheels were pulled off at the exact same time,

just goes to show how efficient and quick these guys are

[Kal123]

Gotta agree with what everyone has said.

FPV Fireball was great to see.

I loved it when the rain hit. As soon as it starting pissing down I told the misses to quicly watch, there is going to be a stack, moments later someone crashed =D

Great to see a see Holden take 9 spots in the top 10.

And the best thing was sitting on my ass for 8 hours straight lol. A perfect Sunday!

[shiftySLE]

All Holden Podium

[Caity05]

Fantastic race, don't think I was breathing for the last few laps or so - I was shaking afterwards!

The fireball was great, had to laugh at the amount of pit crew guys that put the fire out - reminded me of an old Paul Hogan sketch or something.

Would have loved to have seen Murph & Skaife on the podium - wouldn't that throw a spanner in the works for the championship? The overall result was brilliant though, all three sets of drivers/co-drivers deserved to be up there, so I'm not complaining. Holdsworth has had a great year so definitely deserved to cap it off with a Bathurst podium!

[acarmody]

While I am definately a Holden fan, and I'm stoked that Holden pulled 9 out of the top 10. I must applaud car 888 for racing so well without a functioning clutch, with a racing shifter, that must of been hard to rip across gears.

[Grennan]

Their clutch was fine, it was the actual pedal that wasnt working, the pedal wouldnt come back out so they had to put their toes behind it to bring it back forward.

[tr3nt]

Their clutch was fine, it was the actual pedal that wasnt working, the pedal wouldnt come back out so they had to put their toes behind it to bring it back forward.

which would have become farking annoying, considering thier shifts in gears take a split second, yet decellerating, they go thru 2-5 gears within 2 seconds

[acarmody]

Well either way it was a fantastic job. Still thats what you get for driving a Ford. Definately Farked On Race Day. Or Fire On Race Day, also works for this race.

I don't understand how that pedal would work anyway. If the pedal is down then couldn't the clutch be engaged, unless it lost the hydraulic fluid, in which case what would pressing it again achieve?

[Holdens Rule]

It was an intermitent problem according to Lowndes. Looks like it was ok just before he gave it back to Wincup anyway and I didn't think that a clutch was too important for that gearbox either unless you want to take off.

[Zeussy]

Like a couple of others have mentioned... Holden 9/10 in the Top 10!!

Definatley Holden Mountain!!



And all the action in the wet!

[immortality]

It was an intermitent problem according to Lowndes. Looks like it was ok just before he gave it back to Wincup anyway and I didn't think that a clutch was too important for that gearbox either unless you want to take off.

a figment of clowndes's imagination me thinks. if the pedal went to the floor and didn't come up then the hydraulic system was compromised, lifting the pedal with foot would do jack, the only time it would possibly work would be if the seal in the master cylinder was farked and only getting a partial seal sometimes. winccup seemed to leave the pits fine so clutch was functioning normally, me thinks clowndes jsut realised he wasn't fast enough to keep up with Tander, made a few driving errors and needed a excuse. generally they only use the clutch for a complete stop. upshifts no clutch is used, thats what the sequencial shifter and shift cut are for.

[Holdens Rule]

a figment of clowndes's imagination me thinks. if the pedal went to the floor and didn't come up then the hydraulic system was compromised, lifting the pedal with foot would do jack, the only time it would possibly work would be if the seal in the master cylinder was farked and only getting a partial seal sometimes. winccup seemed to leave the pits fine so clutch was functioning normally, me thinks clowndes jsut realised he wasn't fast enough to keep up with Tander, made a few driving errors and needed a excuse. generally they only use the clutch for a complete stop. upshifts no clutch is used, thats what the sequencial shifter and shift cut are for.

If you look at the in board camera's you'll see they do use the clutch for down shifts and that's where Lowndes was losing time. I think as he got used to driving it without the clutch he got his speed back and the only time they did need it was when Wincup took off from the pits which he could have done by putting his foot underneath the pedal. Hydraulics is the obvious problem but how many times have you seen something really silly put a car out of the race and there could have been another factor causing that clutch to stick. But who cares 9 holdens in the top ten and a hog as the tenth!

[immortality]

If you look at the in board camera's you'll see they do use the clutch for down shifts and that's where Lowndes was losing time. I think as he got used to driving it without the clutch he got his speed back and the only time they did need it was when Wincup took off from the pits which he could have done by putting his foot underneath the pedal. Hydraulics is the obvious problem but how many times have you seen something really silly put a car out of the race and there could have been another factor causing that clutch to stick. But who cares 9 holdens in the top ten and a hog as the tenth!

if lifting the pedal with the foot brought the clutch out then with the pedal down he wouldn't have had any drive (because the clutch was released) so in short, with the pedal on the floor they still had drive so release mechanism was farked. so how did wincup drive out of the pits with no issues? did they shut the car down during the stop and restart in gear? did they drop the car off the jacks and it lept forward? looked to me like he left the pit in a standard fasion.

it doesn't look like they fully depress the clutch pedal on the down shift, just enough to slip the clutch to unload the box. no way you could fully depress the clutch fast enough to keep up with the down shifts, thats why the heal/toe action

[Holdens Rule]

So your saying is there is no way the pedal could have jammed by either having grit in it or be affected by heat or even be a dodgy produced one, it had to be hydraulic failure. Damn you guys should be in the pits for them if you can diagnose a problem without even seeing it.

[immortality]

So your saying is there is no way the pedal could have jammed by either having grit in it or be affected by heat or even be a dodgy produced one, it had to be hydraulic failure. Damn you guys should be in the pits for them if you can diagnose a problem without even seeing it.

clutches aren't rocket science mate. if lets say the clutch pedal was jammed down because of grit in the line, then we can assume that the clutch would have been dis-engaged. no drive period. if the clutch was partially disengaged then it would be slipping and wouldn't have lasted another 30 odd laps at full pace. if the clutch slipped due to excessive heat the pedal could drop (i've had this happen with a cable operated clutch) however one would assume loss of drive or atleast a need to back off to let the clutch cool down (in my case it was 30 mins sitting on the side of the road and the pedal came back about 90% but slipped if care wasn't taken) again we didn't see any of these things happen during the race. so cleary the clutch was fully engaged and the issue was most likely with the release mechanism. clutch release mechanism consists of pedal attached to master cylinder and fluid reservoir to fluid line to slave cylinder and thrust bearing. overheating or boiling of the fluid would result in a spongy pedal not pedal on the floor. the strange part is the lifting of the pedal with the foot. if the clutch was working normally and the pedal was on the floor it would mean no drive so when the pedal was on the floor the clutch was engaged so a fluid loss would be the first thought, after that a failing seal in the master cylinder or slave cylinder. a failing seal in the master cylinder would allow you to push the clutch in and get a partial release before pressure was lost (back past the seal without a physical loss of fluid from the system) and the clutch re-ingaged. this to me seems the most likely scenario as wincup did seem to have use of the clutch when he left the pit bay, all be it without any revs suggesting it was a case of lift the pedal, push in and slam into gear whilst the clutch was atleast partially dis-engaged. supposition and guess work, thats the fun of been a viewer.

i have also worked in maintenance for years where fault diagnosis is a major part of the job. this included mechanical, hydraulic and Pneumatic systems and some electrical when i felt keen.

never the less, the result was great